Irene Fernando is the current incumbent, is running for re-election, and is DFL-endorsed. Three people are running against her. Two candidates will advance to the November election. On the ballot:
Irene Fernando (Incumbent, DFL-endorsed)
Sharon El-Amin
Viviana Salazar
Makeda Zulu
There was a candidate forum earlier in July, which you can watch here. Irene, Sharon, and Makeda participated.
Back on July 7th, I asked on Bluesky for more information on this race, because county races tend to be low profile and it’s unusual for an incumbent to have multiple fairly serious challengers. I was told that Irene has been not great at answering e-mails (although she’s working on getting better) and that Sharon El-Amin has been banging that particular drum while also running to her right.
So: I watched the LWV forum. Sharon talked repeatedly about how she’d have a newsletter and listen to constituents and make sure she was doing what constituents wanted, and … okay, you know, here’s the thing (which Irene commented on late in the forum, actually), there are several hundred thousand people in Hennepin County and they often want different things; if there’s a project that will benefit 50,000 people and there are 50 very loud opponents, and you push it through anyway, that doesn’t mean you just weren’t listening. Also, an awful lot of people do not pay close attention on a daily basis to what every level of their local government is up to. How many newsletters of various kinds arrive in your e-mail on a weekly basis, and how many of them do you read? Those 50 loud people opposed to whatever the project is, they’re often absolutely incensed that they weren’t told about this project earlier. Usually there were meetings, surveys, listening sessions, and they missed it. (Sometimes because they weren’t paying attention; often, honestly, because at any given time, a lot is going on, and it’s extremely easy to miss stuff.) The idea that if the Hennepin County Board District 2 commissioner just implemented a newsletter this would solve the problem is frankly hilarious. People wouldn’t sign up for it! Or they would, and then they’d never open it, and they’d still be just as mad. (I’m not anti-newsletter, to be clear, some people would read it and they’d be better informed! but yes, it was very clear from the way Sharon was framing stuff that she was sending out an “I would listen to you and prioritize your concerns and also it’s not your fault for not paying attention, they should have told you better” dogwhistle to people who hate bus lanes and bike lanes and transit improvements that might take away 2 parking spaces and so on and so forth.)
Irene Fernando
I like what Irene has done as commissioner; I value her continued work on the Blue Line extension and on housing. In addition to the DFL endorsement, Irene is endorsed by Ilhan Omar and a long list of Minneapolis (and Hennepin County) state legislators.
Sharon El-Amin
Sharon is currently on the Minneapolis School Board and her endorsements include several of her colleagues on the board, as well as several of my least favorite City Council reps (LaTrisha Vetaw, Michael Rainville.) She mentioned at the forum that she works for the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office; from her LinkedIn, I think she does something administrative. (It says “Office Associate.”)
I have a couple of big concerns about Sharon. Back when she ran for school board in 2018, a homophobic and transphobic Facebook post she’d made in 2016 surfaced (link goes to the Wayback Machine archive because the City Pages is no longer online). She apologized for it, kinda. So far as I know she hasn’t promoted any transphobic policies on the Minneapolis School Board but for obvious reasons I’m still hesitant. There are also her very clear “running to the right of the incumbent” endorsements; I think it’s likely that she would shoot down improvements to transit and bike infrastructure. She’s clearly the preference of the Jacob Frey contingent.
Oh! Also! They had a question at the forum about data centers. Sharon said she’d have to learn more about them, which seems like an incredibly weird response for the “I would, of course, talk to my constituents and do the things they want” candidate, because data centers have emerged in the last few months as this startlingly unifying issue across party, state, and rural/urban divides: everyone hates data centers. (Irene was emphatically anti-data-center.)
Viviana Salazar
Viviana Salazar didn’t make it to the forum and hasn’t posted to most of her social media since March. (She has had a couple of Facebook posts.) At the DFL convention that endorsed Irene, she wasn’t able to get enough seconds to her nomination to be considered. I appreciate that she apparently prioritized fundraising for rent relief over fundraising for her campaign but I also just don’t see much activity. Honestly, the fact that despite door-knocking ahead of the convention she wasn’t able to get enough people there to even get on the ballot for endorsement does not suggest that she’d be particularly effective in office. She does have some endorsements on her website, including Pearll Warren, one of the other City Council reps I don’t like.
Makeda Zulu
Makeda did make it to the forum and was sort of an interesting wild card but not one I’d be super inclined to vote for. There’s a particular type of candidate I see sometimes where they’ve arrived on the scene from smaller-scale community service work, where on some level they have just not fully wrapped their head around how big the political district is, and I think that’s kinda where Makeda is. She talked about working with the Birth Justice Collaborative, which does advocacy and support for Black and Indigenous women who are giving birth (which is so important because Black and Indigenous women die during childbirth at terrifyingly high rates compared to white women); she talked about working with a group that teaches people to make air filtration systems from box fans. (I’m guessing like these.) And, in response to the question about closing the HERC she said she’d form a committee of the people who know how to do it, which … I feel like this has probably been done. In response to a question about the county’s role in public safety, she talked about helping seniors install grab bars. Anyway, while I think Sharon is well aware that her “I’ll just listen to my constituents” schtick is a schtick, I think Makeda is in a place where “I’ll just talk to everyone” seems like a plan.
She seems like a really good person aside from her hatred of bike lanes but I don’t think she’d be effective at the job. (Even though I’m a fan of grab bars.)
A final note about Irene — at the forum, they got asked at one point about how exactly you deal with the competing priorities of all your (many) constituents. Irene responded first. “There are about 200,000 residents in District 2. […] Balancing is difficult, so for me, I have focused on vision, outcomes, and data. I am very very aware that I cannot talk to every resident individually.” I think it’s important for local politicians (or, really, their staff) to respond to constituents when they contact the office with concerns, but fundamentally the thing I find most important is that my representatives share my values, have a vision that’s founded on their values, and make decisions based on those values. It’s clear to me that Irene shares my values around housing, transit, public safety, and the other big issues that the county leads on, far more than Sharon does. I would absolutely vote for Irene, both in the primary and in November.
This seems like a good year to fundraise for a trans nonprofit, so I’m fundraising this year for TIGERRS. I don’t have a Patreon, and a fundraiser lets me see in a tangible way that people value my work, which is really helpful as a motivator. (This project is a lot of work.)
I also have a new book! Obstetrix is about an obstetrician who gets kidnapped by a cult because they want someone on hand to deliver their babies; it’s a story about enduring, surviving, and not giving up. You can buy it anywhere fine books are sold, and Uncle Hugo’s, Moon Palace, and Dreamhaven all (probably) have signed copies.
